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Before we came away I wrote a blog post about how I got stuck in a loop designing the garden. A loop of wanting it to be meaningful and clever, to be original, to make use of all my research into the kinds of prairie plants that survive in our climate. It meant that we were several years without a garden - looking out onto a rubble or black landscape fabric and weeds- until I realised that what I like about gardening is the doing, the pottering, the seeing things grow and harvesting them. I don’t actually like having a garden just to look at. The blog post is now up on the website - and I think the lessons learned probably stretch a lot further than gardening. You can read it by clicking through my bio. I would love to know if anything similar has ever happened to you.
Venice is all about light. ⠀ ⠀ It hasn’t exactly been the best weather while we have been here - a lot of the days have been wet, mainly showery, grey, at times torrential. ⠀ ⠀ Everyone says that it is the worst May weather that they can remember. ⠀ ⠀ But the light. ⠀ ⠀ Somehow it glows through - a mother of pearl sheen behind the clouds, a soft benediction - and makes every corner you turn into a masterpiece. ⠀ ⠀ Today we head to Verona for the day and are promised sunshine - but I honestly don’t believe that Venice could have been any more beautiful in the sun. ⠀
How much do you want to know about small business owners?⠀ ⠀ It is something that I ponder about a lot. It’s a balance between oversharing and ‘just’ being a business on here. This Instagram account is officially a business one but there always seems to be a lot of me in it. ⠀ ⠀ There is also the effect on the actual business to think about. For I am not the whole of Snapdragon. ⠀ ⠀ For example - at the moment I’m on holiday for a few days, yesterday’s post made that clear and my Insta stories have been given over to Venetian scenes all weekend. ⠀ ⠀ But the business continues as normal - this embroidered herb cushion went into the shop, Valerie is packing up the final boxes of this quarter’s Studio Box subscription, Fiona is making and dispatching orders. ⠀ ⠀ When I went to Myanmar in February business went dead - with more orders and emails in the 24 hours after I got home than in the 3 weeks I was away. It is something I need to address. ⠀ ⠀ So do you like to see what business owners/makers/designers/writers get up to in their time off? Or would you prefer social media was temporarily abandoned or handed onto someone back at base? ⠀ ⠀ (As an aside this isn’t about working on holiday -as most business owners will recognise the integrated nature of a small business life means that stress doesn’t come from posting a photo with a coffee in the morning or making notes of a new idea or taking the time to read a great business book)
Today it is my 50th birthday. ⠀ ⠀ I’m celebrating it in Venice, feeling happy, loved, incredibly lucky and very, very much looking forward to whatever the next decades bring. ⠀ ⠀ Euan took this photo on the water bus yesterday headed out to Torcello for lunch. ⠀ ⠀ It is a portrait of a woman anticipating good things. ⠀
What flowers have you seen bees on this year?⠀ 🐝 ⠀ I spent half an hour a couple of days ago sitting watching bees work themselves around the cirsiums - this is one of the first non bulb perennials to flower in our garden so particularly precious for insects⠀ 🐝 ⠀ There were also masses working in the wallflowers next to it - and in the broccoli that we left to flower. ⠀ 🐝 ⠀ Next year we will hopefully be getting a couple of hives to put down in under the apple trees behind the cabin - a beautifully sheltered spot. ⠀ 🐝 ⠀ I grew up with hives - taking them up to the heather in the car - and now that I don’t need to protect a crop of flowers from pollination (for once a flower is fertilised it fades so can’t be sold), we are finally able to get our own. ⠀ 🐝
I have 4 of these cloches. They were originally from the show stand that I made for the Country Living Fair In Glasgow in 2005. ⠀ ⠀ The event that really started my business in many ways and certainly changed the way I thought about what I’m capable of. ⠀ ⠀ The event that taught me that being small is an advantage, not a handicap. ⠀ ⠀ Now they are covered in moss- an effect that would have looked amazing on that original stand. ⠀ ⠀ It looks like another beautiful sunshiney day out there. I am getting ready to write my Friday newsletter which is all about designing the garden and not being too pretentious. X. If you aren’t on my list already you can sign up via my bio.
What do you take with you to pass the time on journeys? I’m travelling a bit over the next few days so have been packing my handbag with things to do- knitting, kindle, phone, headphones, purse. What would be in yours?
”When the gorse is out of flower, kissing‘s out of fashion” There are always a few flowers on the gorse, bright against the grey - but now is peak yellow in the hills. It is a plant that fascinates me. So prickly, so dense and yet its history is so domestic. The wood of choice for bakers’ ovens as it burns hot without making much ash. Planted next to Scotland’s West Coast crofts for drying linen - the barbs holding the sheets better than a washing line in the gales. And then there is the smell - which genetically I cannot discern - but which I am told is pure pina colada.
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About Snapdragon

At Snapdragon we gently guide you through bringing the changing seasons into your daily life, helping you slow down, so that you can experience increased well being, calm and creativity.

Through our communities, both free and paid for, through Jane's writing on the blog, through carefully hand crafted gifts and activity kits, and through our online and in-person workshops we aim to bring people back in touch with the rhythms of a seasonal life.

Learn more about why here

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